Share Article

In partnership with the +SocialGood initiative headed by the UN Foundation, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cisco, Rockefeller Foundation, Mashable and other partners, Beats Rhymes & Relief proudly presents Hip Hop +SocialGood on March 15th during SxSW. An interactive exploration on nexus between Hip Hop, technology, the music industry, social good & consciousness.

Hip Hop +SocialGood is an interactive exploration on nexus between Hip Hop, technology, the music industry, social good & consciousness.

Austin, TX (PRWEB)March 12, 2014

Hip Hop +SocialGood at the We Are Hip Hop Showcase: An exploration of Hip Hop, the music industry, social good & consciousness.

Taking place on March 15th from 7:30-9:30pm at Krave, located at 302 East 6TH ST, Austin, Texas 78701 (3 blocks from SxSW main location), Hip Hop +SocialGood is part of the We Are Hip Hop Showcase organized Beats Rhymes & Relief, an NGO utilizing the arts to raise awareness and support for worldwide humanitarian relief and community development efforts.

In the United States, the music industry is estimated to be a $40-billion-a-year industry. In America alone, colleges spend nearly $250 million each year on live concerts for their student body. An estimated 87% of Americans listen to music daily, and of those, an estimated 20% listen to rap & hip hop.

The genres of hip hop and rap are often associated with negatively influencing youth and society.

Studies have long shown that media messages have a pronounced impact on childhood risk behaviors. Youth seemingly live vicariously through the words and actions of artists. Hip Hop and Rap genres are often associated with negative and offensive imagery both lyrically and visually with references to explicit sex, negative portrayal of women, and racial degradation.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied the 279 most popular songs from 2005 to see if songs that contained a reference to drugs or alcohol varied by genre. The study showed that 9% of pop songs had lyrics relating to drugs or alcohol, 14% for rock songs, 20% for R&B and hip-hop songs, 36%for country songs and 77% for rap songs.

One in three popular songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol use, according to a new report in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. On average, teenagers listen to nearly 2.5 hours of music per day. That means kids are receiving about 35 references to substance abuse for every hour of music they listen to. The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year. The average adolescent listening only to pop would be exposed to 5 references per day, whereas the average adolescent who listens just to rap would be exposed to 251 references per day.

It is arguable that music has more control of influencing youth than parents and any other source.

A study published on MTV.com of more than 1,200 California community-college students ages 15-25— titled "Music, Substance Use and Aggression" — showed a link between music-listening habits, use of alcohol and drugs, and “aggressive behaviors,” such a fighting or threatening people with violence. The results found that almost “70 % of the students who listened to music "daily or almost daily" listened to rap and hip-hop, and when that data was compared with the students' answers about alcohol, drugs and violence, the survey found that "substance use and aggressive behaviors among young people were significantly associated to certain genres of popular music," mainly rap, reggae, rock and techno.”

Hip Hop +SocialGood is dedicated to exploring this nexus and identifying how to reclaim hip hop as a tool to engage and inspire youth and catalyze positive impact. Our panel will talk about how lyrics and the arts can be a force behind uniting peoples across geographic, linguistic, social boundaries for ‘social good’.

The event headliner is Talib Kweli, world famous Brooklyn-based rapper who earned his stripes as one of the most lyrically-gifted, socially aware and politically insightful rappers to engage in the last 20 years. “My music has been associated with those types of causes, with positivity, spirituality, intelligence and being thought-provoking and such,” says Kweli.

We Are Hip Hop Showcase is organized to display talents of 15+ underground socially conscious artists from around the US. Lyrics of selected artists talk to values of community, diversity, anti-violence, youth engagement and importance of social development. The focus is on artists using music and the arts as a social development tool.

Hip Hop +SocialGood is the beginning of a larger conversation engaging artists, producers, the music industry, philanthropists, governments and thought leaders in conversations on ‘Arts for humanities.’

About +SocialGood
+SocialGood unites a global community of innovators around a shared vision: The power of technology and new media to make the world a better place. This is a community of connectors, bringing together ideas and action in our social media era. The +SocialGood engagement platform provides a space for a truly global conversation to take shape—a place where connectors can collaborate, share best practices, influence local and global agendas, and find new ways to translate their vision into action.

About Beats, Rhymes & Relief
Beats, Rhymes & Relief is a non-profit organization utilizing the arts to raise awareness and support for worldwide humanitarian relief efforts. Beats, Rhymes & Relief harnesses the power of cultural diplomacy to raise the profile of global issues through high-profile public music concerts. http://www.beatsrhymesandrelief.org